Official: West Pottsgrove murder victim was shot in the back

WEST POTTSGROVE — In the day following the shocking murder of a 19-year-old taken by gunpoint from his West Pottsgrove home, who exactly that young man was remains a complicated question.

Kareem Ali Borowy died in the grass at the side of the 2100 block of Sanatoga Station Road Sunday around 2:30 p.m., not long after the abduction from the house on the 1200 block of Manatawny Street.

Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said an autopsy conducted Monday morning determined Borowy died from a gunshot wound to the back. The manner of death was ruled a homicide, he said.

Several readers told The Mercury, a sister paper of The Times Herald, that Kareem was the adopted son of Ruth Borowy, who reportedly adopted Kareem and his three siblings — two sisters and a brother — out of Philadelphia and brought them to the Boyertown area.

Some years ago, due to some “prejudices” they encountered, the Borowys moved to the residence on Manatawny Street in West Pottsgrove, according to several readers.

Kathy Wesler’s son, Timothy Manley, was a friend of Kareem’s.

“When he moved here to West Pottsgrove, he and my son and the kids in the neighborhood all hung out and became good friends,” Wesler said. “They’d play football and all.”

She described Kareem as being “very polite” and always one to say hi.

“Every time he came to the house, he always came and gave me a hug,” Wesler said.

Yellow police tape ran around the Borowys’ front yard Sunday afternoon after “multiple suspects armed with handguns” stormed the home and demanded money, according to a press release from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

The suspects than took Kareem as they fled.

Authorities believe the 19-year-old was targeted in the crime. They also said it “was not a random act,” but no suspects have yet to be named or described.

A passing motorist found Borowy lying on the side of Sanatoga Station Road attempting to wave down traffic around 2:26 p.m. Sunday.

An ambulance arrived and EMTs treated him, but Borowy was eventually pronounced dead at the scene.

When asked Sunday afternoon if anyone was hurt at the Manatawny Street residence, West Pottsgrove Police Chief Earl Swavely replied, “Not at the house.”

Monday, the police tape was gone from the front of the Borowy home. The rest of the block seemed to be back to regular business, with one man a house or two up the street cutting his grass.

The Borowys were not home in the afternoon and investigators stood in their driveway, the only reminder that something happened the day before outside of the stare and hushed conversation of a few neighbors surveying the two-story home.

Wesler said her son and Kareem hung out less when they got to Pottsgrove High School, where Borowy graduated last year.

“They hung out on and off. Once they got in high school they got in their own little crowds,” Wesler said. “Sometimes they would come around and sometimes they didn’t. It was kind of like a brother thing. Some days they’d be sick of each other and some days they’d want to hang out.”

It was around then that Wesler said she could tell something was “going on” with Kareem.

Things apparently came to a head this year, when Borowy was arrested twice on drug charges.

According to a criminal complaint, police noticed a pair of “suspicious vehicles” parked in the garage beneath the Macy’s department store at the King of Prussia Mall.

Borowy was allegedly sitting in a the passenger seat of a Lexus next to a man named Thien Huu Nguyen, 25, from Paoli. Parked next to the Lexus was a BMW 3 series with one person sitting in the passenger seat, later identified as a Robert Bickel.

A police officer approaching the vehicle allegedly “smelled a strong odor of marijuana.”

“I asked Nguyen and Borowy several times if there was marijuana inside the vehicle,” the arresting officer wrote in the complaint. “Every time I asked the pair, the both became silent and did not confirm or deny the presence of marijuana.”

When police searched the car, they allegedly discovered a bag containing a “large quantity of marijuana” where Borowy had been reaching beneath his seat while the officer spoke with him and Nguyen.

Borowy reportedly denied the bag was his.

The BMW belonged to Borowy’s mother, police said, and a subsequent search turned up blunt wraps and clear plastic baggies, two of which reportedly contained marijuana residue and a third containing white powder residue, which was unidentified by police in the criminal complaint.

A knife was also discovered in the center console of the BMW.

Police found similar items in Nguyen’s car.

A large amount of cash was confiscated from both Nguyen and Borowy.

Nguyen and Borowy faced similar charges and got the same bail: $25,000 cash. Bickel apparently was uncharged in the incident.

Neither initially posted bail and both went to Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

It is unclear how Borowy got out of jail, as there are no court records detailing the payment of his bail or changes in the bail conditions.

Borowy was also scheduled to have a preliminary hearing in Centre County Wednesday for a charge of intending to possess a controlled substance dating to Feb. 23.

He was released on his own recognizance in that charge.

Following his death, the Pottsgrove School District released a statement on the district website.

“The Pottsgrove School District community mourns the loss of 2012 graduate Kareem Ali Borowy,” it said. “We are deeply saddened by the violence that took his life and want to extend condolences to family and friends.”

The statement went on to say the district was providing crisis counselors at the high school to students or staff who needed to talk and the district works “actively ... to promote non-violence in our schools and hope the community can continue to address this important issue.”

Among the outpouring of grief online for Borowy almost immediately after his identity was released Sunday, many calling him a friend recounted times when they got high together.

One indicated Borowy initially wouldn’t smoke with his friends, just hang out. But he apparently came around to it, according to multiple posts.

A Facebook profile with Borowy’s name and picture displayed a post from Feb. 12, before his charges, that read, “Sober life for a while look drugs are cool and all but dam do they f*** life’s up” .

A person who claimed to be friends with Borowy since they were “kids” said the young man was “misunderstood.”

“He was the most selfless person I ever met,” she told The Mercury, wishing to remain anonymous. “All he ever wanted to do was help people out.”

A mother of a Pottsgrove High School student, who also asked to remain anonymous, said her daughter told her Borowy took a younger student under his wing there.

She said the younger boy came from a family with some problems and that Borowy always made sure he had enough money to have lunch every day. Other students who picked on the student stopped after Borowy started taking care of him, according to the woman’s daughter.

As such, when Borowy graduated, the woman said her daughter and a friend took up where Borowy left off, floating some cash to the boy so he could have a daily lunch.

“There was a good heart in this person even though he made some bad decisions,” the woman said.

Wesler said she didn’t know Borowy was arrested before she saw it in the news Monday.

“My son has a little pact with him, they kept their mouths closed. My son didn’t want me to be judgmental,” Wesler said. “But I would never have judged Kareem.”

Unfortunately, although she didn’t know about Borowy’s arrests, Wesler said she wasn’t surprised by what happened.

“When you ask(ed) questions, you didn’t get the real answer,” she said. “(It was) a beat-around-the-bush answer.”